


To Remember What's Important

by aunormahals



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Slice of Life, i guess idk how tags work, its a quarantine fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:54:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23897830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aunormahals/pseuds/aunormahals
Summary: Warlock Cassiopeia has learned a very valuable lesson: that is, never defy the Vanguard's orders. Now under strict orders to not be allowed to leave the Last City, Cass has to remember what it means to be a Guardian, and what it means to be a defender of humanity. (Pre-Destiny)
Kudos: 7





	To Remember What's Important

**Author's Note:**

> this is just gonna be a bunch of short stories with the barest hint of a plot (maybe). yes it is a quarantine fic. i have no shame.

The clock on the nightstand read 4:34 am. Rain trickled down the window pane, with the occasional flash of lightning illuminating the gray twilight sky. The City was asleep: the streets were empty, and the only lights came from the streetlights on the corner of the block. Warlock Cassiopeia should be asleep with the rest of the City. Instead, they sat on the window sill, their eyes tracing the path of a raindrop until it landed in a small puddle on the outer ledge. Once it vanished into the puddle, their eyes found the next drop, and watched it travel slowly downwards.

A Ghost floated next to the Guardian, silent and watching. His eye flickered between his Guardian and the view out the window. In the growing light of day, he realized that his Guardian was exhausted—dark purple shadows circled their eyes.

“Cass,” the Ghost spoke, “you need to rest.”

“I’m not tired,” they responded. Their gaze never left the window.

“I know you are; you’ve been awake for a while now.” They didn’t respond. The Ghost shifted his shell a bit and let out a sigh. “And I know you had another nightmare.”

“I always have nightmares; it’s nothing to be concerned about.”

“When it keeps you up for hours, it does concern me. Cass, please,” Sirius pleaded after a moment of silence. “I’d like to help you, and I can’t read your mind…”

The two fell silent again. The rain picked up a bit—the pitter-patter grew stronger and louder. There was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder overhead. Neither one moved.

Eventually Cassiopeia spoke up: “What do you remember about the first time you met me?”

“I remember you being quite dead.”

That garnered a small smile. “Obviously. But I’m being serious here.”

“I thought I was Sirius here,” joked Sirius.

The smile grew. “That’s the worst joke; why do you insist on using it?”

“The name was your idea; I’m just going with it.”

“Come on, now, you said you liked it!”

“And I do! But I can still poke fun of it every now and again.”

Cass shook their head. “Sirius… be serious…”

“I recall you being dead, and the fact,” Sirius continued, quelling Cass’ growing protest, “that it was very cold. The environment had, and I’m sorry to say this, kept your corpse rather well-preserved. Remember? You woke up near the North Pole. I can’t say I have any idea why you would have been there in the first place, but it was clear what you died from—your throat had been cut, and you bled to death.” He spun his shell in thought and glided slightly closer to his Guardian. “Do you, by any chance, remember anything about your past life?”

Cass shook their head again, this time as if to clear their mind. “I get glimpses, sometimes. When I sleep, I mean. I sometimes sleep and see a place I’ve never been before. It lasts for just a moment but its vivid enough that I remember it.”

“What sort of images?”

“A… a field of fruit, ripe on the bushes and trees—I wake up when I realize I want to eat the fruit. A large and glistening Tower, mostly of its apex—it vanishes when I turn my gaze away to search for a doorway. I dream of a world covered in white, and the only thing I can see is a knife before me. I… I think someone is holding it, but I can’t move my eyes away to see who it is. At once it moves towards me and I wake up.  
“I think… I think the last dream is about my death. It would make sense, wouldn’t it? Found in a cold place with my throat open, and this dream happens often enough that it can’t be a coincidence…”

The two fell silent again, the only noise in the room came from the rain against the window. The Ghost didn’t quite know what to say; it was rather easy to tell what Cass was thinking—they had a tendency to ramble aloud—but now, the Guardian was eerily quiet. He could tell that their thoughts were racing in their mind. Their eyes were vigilant, darting back and forth, against the heavy exhaustion that weighed against them and threatened to shut them. Sirius wondered, for a brief moment, what his Guardian was thinking…

And then, as if to hear him, Cass spoke up: “Do you ever regret it?”

He blinked in confusion. “Regret? Regret what?”

“Finding me. Rezzing me. Having me as your Guardian.”

That took him aback. What brought this on? “Of course not! Why would I?”

“All I seem to do is cause trouble for the Vanguard and worry you. It’s just… I shouldn’t be causing so many unneeded problems, and I…”

Sirius cut in when Cass seemed to trail off. “Is this about what happened recently?”

Cass nodded. “I should have listened to you, to the Vanguard. I don’t know why I didn’t! I was so sure of myself, that I could do something, something that no one else could do because for some reason, if _I_ did it then it would work. I was so sure of myself, so conceited… if I had just taken the moment to _think_ about my actions, to weigh the pros and cons of venturing into an abyss full of horrors and of the unknown…!” Cass buried their face into their hands and let out a soft moan. “I should have known better… I should have known…”

Sirius stared at his Guardian. He was stunned into silence; he had never seen his Guardian this distressed by anything. He shook himself out of his stupor and moved close to his Guardian. “Cass… You have good intentions; you just don’t think these things through enough. You made a mistake, big deal. Everyone makes mistakes. What matters is what you take away from those lessons.” He stared into their eyes and noticed the beginnings of tears pooling up. “So… you broke Vanguard sanctions, got lost and separated from your Ghost, and lost all memory of whatever happened to you. Now you’re prohibited from running ops for the next ten months. What did you learn?”

Cass sniffled uncharacteristically before responding: “Listen to Ghost when he says something is a bad idea.”

If Sirius could smile, he would. “Yes, very much listen to your Ghost. What else?”

They took a steadying breath. “To make sure to view a problem from all possible angles in order to find the best solution. To take precautions into account in case of mishaps.”

Sirius nodded. “See? Important lessons that need to be learned, regardless of who you are. You have the potential to do so much good, Cass, you just need to focus on what’s important. You can’t help anyone when you’re dead.”

“Right… focus. I need to focus. That’s what I’ll do with my time.” Cass stifled a yawn. “Thanks for being my voice of reason.”

“That’s what I’m here for. Now, as your voice of reason, I suggest you sleep.”

Cass got up from the window with no argument and managed to stumble over to their bed, collapsing onto the mess of tangled sheets. Sirius watched as they fought to straighten the blankets before, victorious, letting their body come to rest.

“What would I do without you?” mumbled the Guardian.

“Nothing,” the Ghost responded, “you’d be dead.”

Cass straightened out their arm. Sirius took this chance to lower himself into their open palm.

“I do remember one thing, though,” Cass whispered.

“Oh?”

“Yeah… I don’t remember anything but a faint feeling…”

“What did you feel?”

“I felt like… I was returning home. Like a parent was waiting for me to come back to them…  
“I don’t know. Maybe I was just imagining it.” 


End file.
